Martin Sheen has high praise for charity as it expands to Calgary

Thandi Fletcher, Calgary Herald05.27.2012

‘I’m hooked,’ actor Martin Sheen says of Craig and Marc Kielburger’s ‘We Day’ campaign. Sheen threw his support behind the Kielburger cause on Monday, when the brothers announced additional rallies next year, including an April 29 date in Ottawa-Gatineau.

Before he was President Josiah Bartlet from The West Wing or Captain Willard in Apocalypse Now, and before his award shelf was adorned with shiny metal, Martin Sheen was a golf caddy.

Then known as Ramón Estévez, Sheen was just nine years old when he began lugging around golf clubs at a posh country club in his hometown of Dayton, Ohio.

“By age 14, I had become very aware of the way we were treated, or mistreated, I should say,” he recalled.

Sheen spoke to the Herald from Toronto, where he was in town to take part in an announcement that We Day, a youth empowerment event launched by international charity Free the Children, will be coming to three new cities— Calgary, Ottawa and Halifax— this fall.

We Day is both a social movement and a one-day celebratory gathering, in which students earn entry through volunteerism, that brings together youth, social activists, celebrity speakers and musical guests.

Students can volunteer for charities they are interested in, or those created by Free the Children such as Adopt a Village that aims to improve education, health care, water and sanitation in underdeveloped countries like Kenya, Haiti, India, and Sierra Leone.

Past We Day speakers include the Dalai Lama, Richard Branson, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, while past musical guests include Justin Bieber, the Jonas Brothers, Jason Mraz and K’naan.

Speakers for this year’s We Day in Calgary have not yet been released, but former Soviet leader and Nobel Peace laureate Mikhail Gorbachev is slated as a keynote speaker at a gala dinner the night before on Oct. 23.

Gorbachev also spoke at last year’s We Day in Vancouver.

It was the country club incident that first got a young Sheen interested in social activitism.

In response to the mistreatment, Sheen started a union and launched a strike along with his fellow caddies that lasted 48 hours.

Although the union was unsuccessful, he said the incident planted the seeds of social activism that still propels him to advocate for causes in which he believes.

“That was an education,” said Sheen. “That experience changed my life, so I’ve been in the fray ever since.”

Sheen has been a steadfast supporter of We Day since he was first invited three years ago by its co-founders, brothers Craig and Marc Kielburger, to speak at We Day in Toronto.

“I’m hooked!” he said. “I told them whenever I could offer some insight or energy or whatever I had, I’d be delighted if they would call on me, and they have.”

We Day’s focus on molding youth into leaders in volunteerism and philanthropy is what Sheen said appealed to him.

“There’s an old Hebrew adage, ‘He that hath offspring giveth up hostages to the future,’” said Sheen. “That’s our future. We really can’t do much after the mess we’ve made. But these children can learn form our mistakes and they can forge a world that is open and welcoming to all, and that’s really the whole point of this.”

Many children face hurdles like peer pressure that prevent them from volunteering, said Sheen.

“I think one of the biggest problems with young people today is not apathy, but it is peer pressure,” said Sheen. “It is having to face each other and (they) want to be like each other, and at the same time they are asked and compelled to step out of the clique in order to become their true selves.”

We Day, he said, helps to show them there are others out there who also want to try to make the world a better place.

“The result of that has been fantastic, where kids look around and see they’re not the only one standing outside the circle,” he said. “They’re not the only ones who have stepped up and followed their heart, their conscience.”

For more information on how schools can take part in We Day, visit www.weday.com

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